


One Winter Morning

by VarjoRuusu



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Snow, self-indulgent nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28976892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: The winter had been hard on John, the cold causing more pain in his leg than he'd had in years, and James had been gone almost the whole time, on the other side of the world where it was bright and sunny and summer. And now, with the snow, it was unlikely he'd be home that afternoon like he should have been.
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/John Silver
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	One Winter Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Two contributing factors to this story: I keep seeing that I have 79 Black Sails fics posted and it's BUGGING ME. And it snowed and I was inspired by the view from my living room window, even though I'm not actually in Yorkshire.
> 
> Non beta'd, my stuff never is, I haven't reread it either, I just threw it together and posted it. It's not great, it's total self indulgent fluffy whatever and OMG I haven't written them in like 2+ years and it's weird.

John sighed, gazing out the window at the sunrise. The sky was pale blue and sparkling with frosty crystals. The ground was white with snow, sitting almost six inches deep, and as beautiful as it was, it also made him sad.

The winter had been hard on John, the cold causing more pain in his leg than he'd had in years, and James had been gone almost the whole time, on the other side of the world where it was bright and sunny and summer. And now, with the snow, it was unlikely he'd be home that afternoon like he should have been.

Sure, it was only likely to be one more day, after three delays in his return from his latest Navy deployment, but after almost ten weeks that should have been six, one short assignment turned into an entire mess of extra time and work, John could hardly stand the thought of waiting another hour, much less however long it actually took for them to clear the roads. He wished he'd stayed in the city.

Their flat in London was nice enough, cosy and warm and on the top floor of an old converted Victorian town house, but John always preferred to spend the winters in their cottage further north, deep in the Yorkshire dales. He'd come up just after Christmas, much to the joy of Jackson, their golden retriever, and chagrin of Molly, their oversized and very fluffy cat. Molly was queen of their small house, and she looked with disdain on anything uncomfortable, including the cold and wet of Yorkshire.

The lights flickered and John sighed, turning away from the window and going back to the fireplace, tossing another log on before going around to the switches and turning the lights off. He'd worried the power would go out the night before, but so far it had been all right. If it snowed again tonight, it was likely he'd be without power as well. If the cottage got cold, he would never hear the end of it from Molly.

John considered if he was feeling up to making breakfast when the old phone in the kitchen rang, the one they kept connected because most of their neighbours didn't have mobile phones up here, and because even when the power went down, or the towers went out, the phone still worked. He scrambled for it and winced when he pressed the cold plastic to his ear.

“Hello?”

“ _Hi,”_ came James voice from the other end and John couldn't stop the smile.

“Hey,” he said softly, leaning against the wall.

“ _Are you all right? How bad is the weather?”_ James asked, concern lacing his voice.

“We're fine,” John chuckled. “Molly is...being Molly.” The cat was sitting on the windowsill looking out at the snow with such an expression of disgust that John wanted to capture and frame the moment. “There's about six inches, and it's likely the trains won't be running.”

“ _No, they're not,”_ James sighed. _“Everything shut down around ten last night, just before my plane landed. We were lucky to land actually, I think we were the last ones in.”_

“Mmm,” John hummed, sadness tugging at his heart.

“ _You have enough food? Supplies?”_ James asked and John chuckled.

“This isn't the first winter I've spent here alone,” he said softly. “We'll be fine. There's plenty of wood and the cupboard is stocked with soup and other things in cans that don't need to be mentioned unless there's nothing else left.”

James chuckled, thinking of the list they'd put together years ago to stock up for winter. John had protested loudly to the canned corn and a few of the other vegetables.

“ _Good, I'm glad you're safe.”_

“I miss you,” John said quietly and he heard James sigh.

“ _I miss you too. I'm sorry I won't make it back when I said.”_

“Last I checked, you don't control the weather,” John managed with a smile and James chuckled.

“ _Have you called Mrs. Humboldt yet?”_

John groaned, thinking of their closest neighbour, a charming old lady well into her 80's. She was sweet, but she would always lecture his ear off about anything whenever he called or went by to help with anything.

“ _You should call her,”_ James smirked and John mumbled a few choice insults.

“Fine,” he said finally. “I'll call the old hag.”

“ _I'll check in later?”_

“Please do,” John muttered, glancing over as one of the kitchen implements beeped. The power went out, then on, and it beeped again, then the display went dark and stayed that way. “Well, that was the power,” he sighed. “I'll run by and check on her later.”

“ _Be careful,”_ James said softly and John assured him he would. A few more words and he hung up, sighing deeply and closing his eyes for a long moment before he shook himself and stood straight, going back to the bedroom to dress for the outside.

An few hours later saw John carefully navigating the snow down the lane on his way back from checking on Mrs. Humboldt. She'd been perfectly pleased to see him, talking the entire time and hardly letting him get a word in as usual, but he brought more firewood in for her and stoked the fire until it was crackling merrily, and promised to come by in the evening again, and in the morning to check on her. He left with a tea towel full of scones under one arm and Jackson bouncing around his legs in the snow.

He was almost back to his own drive, breath turning to clouds of steam in the late morning light as he climbed the hill, when he noticed tyre tracks. He didn't expect anyone to be out on the roads until at least early afternoon, but when he found tracks leading up the drive he frowned, following them until the cottage came into view, a black Range Rover parked out front.

Jackson barked and darted away from him, running as fast as he could through the snow to the door, barking and scratching until it swung open and John nearly dropped the scones as he gasped. Standing in the doorway was James, a grin on his face and his hair still damp. He was wearing dark jeans and John's green turtle neck and Jackson immediately jumped up on him, barking madly.

By the time John made it to the door, taking care that he didn't slip, Jackson was satisfied and had disappeared into the house, and James was coming to meet him, feet hastily crammed into a pair of heavy slippers. He felt like he might cry when he finally reached James, tea towel of scones carelessly forgotten as he threw his arms around the other and held on tight. James buried his nose against John's hair as they held each other, both shaking slightly from the cold and the joy of seeing one another again.

“I thought you weren't coming,” John sniffed, pulling back a little to get a good look at James. He looked just the same, if not a bit more tired than when he'd left several weeks before, his beautiful smile and green eyes shining as John rubbed a thumb across his cheek, pressing their foreheads together.

“I borrowed one of the winter Rover's,” James grinned. “After the four extra weeks, they owed me. I was partway here when I called, I wanted to surprise you.”

“Cheeky shit,” John grinned and James laughed.

“Come here,” he said softly, pulling John into a gentle, yet passionate kiss. “I love you,” he whispered against John's lips and John sighed happily.

“I'm glad you're home,” he breathed, frost dancing around them and lending a magical feel to the air. It felt like the missing part of him had settled back into place as they went inside, and once again all was right with the world.


End file.
